Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Opponents of Libyan leader Muammar
Qaddafi consolidated control over cities in the oil-rich east
while he clamped down on Tripoli, using tanks to block highways
and security forces to attack residents, witnesses said.

Foreign governments began discussing possible intervention
and stepped up efforts to extract their citizens from what
fleeing Egyptians said is turning into a bloodbath. Egyptians
returning through a Libyan checkpoint now in the hands of
Qaddafi’s opponents told of his supporters, most of them foreign
mercenaries, attacking anyone in the capital who was on the
streets.

“It’s a massacre in there,” Mohamed Yehia, 23, said today
after entering the Egyptian border town of Salloum. “He is
crazy. The world must know what he’s doing to his people.”

The unrest in Africa’s third-biggest oil producer sent
crude advancing for a sixth day, with Brent reaching a 30-month
high of almost $120 in London. Stocks slid, with the Stoxx 600
capping its longest losing streak in almost five months. Markets
are responding to concern that crude supplies may be further
affected if the struggle against Qaddafi becomes more protracted
or violent, possibly leading to civil war. Barclays Capital
estimated that about 1 million barrels of daily oil production
may have been cut.

Protesters’ Complaints

Protesters in Libya and elsewhere in the region have been
driven by a combination of economic complaints such as high
prices and scarce jobs, and the repression of political and
civil rights by leaders in power for decades. Qaddafi has led
Libya since coming to power in a military coup in 1969. He
refers to himself as “leader and guide of the revolution,”
saying in a Feb. 22 speech that because he isn’t a president or
head of state, he can’t step down.

The border crossing at Salloum swelled with people trying
to escape the growing violence, including thousands of Egyptians
as well as 400 Chinese citizens transported by their government
from Libya in buses.

“The mercenaries are in the streets and they’re killing
anyone who leaves his house,” said Nabil Abdel Raouf, 35, an
Egyptian construction worker who lived in the eastern Libyan
town of Derna, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the border.
“My brother and cousins have been trying to leave Tripoli for
four days, but they’re not able to.”

Egypt’s military said on its Facebook page that more than
25,000 Egyptians left Libya via Salloum as of the morning hours
local time. It said three had died, without giving details.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told parliament
yesterday there are “credible” reports that 1,000 people have
been killed. Human Rights Watch says at least 300 people have
died in the 10 days since the crackdown on protesters began.

‘Bloody Struggle’

“The danger is Qaddafi refuses to go, holes up somewhere,
and a bloody struggle ensues to dislodge him,” said Fawaz
Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School
of Economics.

The violence in Libya quickly surpassed unrest in other
Arab countries engulfed by demonstrations as Qaddafi vowed to
fight the uprising to his “last drop of blood.” The Libyan
leader was last heard from publicly on the night of Feb. 22, in
which he called the protesters “rats” and “cockroaches,”
warning them to stay off the streets and reading a litany of
offenses that would justify the death penalty. State television
said he would speak again today.

“Civil war is most likely unless someone assassinates
Qaddafi,” said Robert Baer, a former U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency officer and author of several books on the Middle East.
The ruler’s supporters “are going to hold onto a part of the
country, an armed force with a lot of money.”

Outside of the capital, and in Libyan diplomatic missions
around the world, cracks in the regime were widening.

Tribal Loyalties

The loyalties of tribes in Libya will be crucial in
determining the outcome of the fighting, said Ronald Bruce St.
John, an analyst at the Foreign Policy in Focus institute and
author of “Libya: From Colony to Independence.” In particular,
he said, the al-Zuwayyas in the east, the location of much of
the country’s oil production, may be instrumental.

“The Zuwayya tribe has come out decrying the oppression of
the protesters, and it’s not an empty threat because of where
they’re located,” St. John said in a phone interview from his
home in New Mexico. “These guys are located around where a lot
of the oil comes out, and they’re in a good position to stop oil
exports, which they have threatened to do.”

Other tribes, including the Warfalla and Markafa, which
were traditionally allied with the Qaddafi tribe, have also
switched sides, saying, “We’re not going to participate
anymore” with the regime, according to St. John.

Troops Join Opponents

In the east, Qaddafi’s opponents organized committees of
civilians to run and defend their cities with the help of troops
who deserted his forces. In Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city, anti-Qaddafi militias in front of the courthouse
were collecting weapons from people who had seized them from
army supplies, a local resident said by phone, declining to be
identified due to concern over reprisals.

Anti-government protesters appeared to be in control of the
entire eastern coastline, Al Jazeera television reported today,
as clashes between pro- and anti-government forces broke out in
other cities, including Sabha in the southwest, and Sabhatha and
Az-Zawiyah, both west of Tripoli.

Major General Suleiman Mahmoud, commander of the Libyan
army in Tobruk, told Al Jazeera that his forces have deserted
Qaddafi and are siding with local residents. “We are supporting
the Libyan people,” he said in a phone interview with the
channel. He said Tobruk was peaceful and that residents were
organizing themselves.

Won’t ‘Divide Us’

“The possibility of civil war only exists if Qaddafi
stays,” Mohammed Ali Abdallah, deputy head of the National
Front for the Salvation of Libya, the main exiled opposition
group, said today.

Nuri al-Mismari, Qaddafi’s former protocol chief, told Al
Jazeera today, “He is trying to divide us so that he can be in
power but this will not happen.”

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, Qaddafi’s second-oldest son, denied
on state television today reports that warplanes had been used
in attacks. One of his brothers, Saadi, in an interview in the
London-based Financial Times, contradicted him, saying ships and
aircraft had been used to bombard ammunition depots in Benghazi.
The New York Times cited a military officer as saying three
Libyan naval ships were ordered to sail to Benghazi and attack
it, and that the crews were stalled because they were torn over
what to do.

Al-Qaeda

Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kayem warned on state
television late yesterday that al-Qaeda was behind killings in
Benghazi. He said the group had established an “emirate” in
the city of Derna and would attack Europe if not stopped.

The SITE Monitoring Group, which checks the websites of
Islamic militant groups, said yesterday that al-Qaeda’s North
African arm, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, expressed
solidarity with anti-government forces in Libya and urged
Muslims everywhere to support the uprising. “We will do
whatever we can to help,” SITE quoted the group as saying.

More than a dozen Libyan envoys have resigned since the
uprising began on Feb. 17, including Libya’s chief diplomats to
the United Nations and to the U.S., and world leaders have begun
to join Libyans defecting from the regime in calling for
international intervention.

Obama, Clinton

President Barack Obama said he’s sending Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Feb.
28 to meet with other foreign ministers to work on a coordinated
response.

“The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous” and those
responsible must be held accountable, Obama said after meeting
with Clinton at the White House.

Italy’s Frattini said he feared there will be as many as
300,000 refugees if the unrest becomes a civil war. The European
Union said it was suspending talks on smoothing relations with
Libya and “is ready to take further measures” against the
North African nation.

“My question right now would be to Colonel Qaddafi, ‘What
on earth do you think you are doing? Stop it,’” U.K. Prime
Minister David Cameron said in a question-and-answer-session on
Al Jazeera today. Sanctions will “have to be looked at” if the
violence continues, Cameron told the BBC. “Britain, with her
allies, should be looking at all of the options for the future.”

‘Too Many Questions’

Jan Techau, an analyst at NATO Defense College in Rome,
said today that while foreign powers would use their militaries
to evacuate citizens, armed intervention in Libya was unlikely.

“This would be a difficult operation and would require a
fairly large number of troops,” he said. “How do you get out?
The fog of war is extremely dangerous and there are just too
many questions.”

Evacuations have been complicated by the closing of all
airports in Libya except Tripoli’s and by obstruction by Libyan
authorities, who have denied requests for extra flights and
prevented evacuees from boarding ships.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Libya
denied requests for extra flights to evacuate Turks from the
country, prompting Turkey to begin the biggest sea evacuation in
its history. Turkey has repatriated 5,516 of its estimated
25,000 citizens from Libya so far, his ministry said today.

An aircraft that landed in Tripoli yesterday was prevented
from picking up Irish nationals by Libyan security, the Irish
government said in an e-mailed statement.

China hired four passenger ships from Greece and Malta and
100 buses from Egypt to move 4,600 of its estimated 30,000
nationals away from the violence, its Foreign Ministry said.

U.K. Evacuation

Overnight, Cameron ordered a Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules
to fly from Malta to Tripoli to collect remaining British
citizens from the city. Two planes left Tripoli, with a third to
follow, carrying at least 260 people, the Foreign Office said.

Libya is the latest regime in the region to experience a
popular uprising following the toppling of governments in
Tunisia and Egypt. Demonstrations have also occurred in Yemen
and Bahrain, prompting Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil
exporter, to introduce moves intended to increase living
standards. King Abdullah yesterday announced at least $11
billion in spending increases on social security and housing.

Libya, with a population of about 6.3 million, pumps 1.6
million barrels of oil a day, selling most of it to Europe,
according to Bloomberg estimates. That’s about 1.8 percent of
world supply. It’s the third-biggest producer in Africa after
Nigeria and Angola, while Libyan reserves of 44.3 billion
barrels are the continent’s largest, according to BP Plc’s
Statistical Review of World Energy.